We are the WINX
by texaswookie
Summary: For Halloween the girls dress as the W.I.N.X characters.


My Muse forced me to write this and is cackling like Joker on helium now that it's done. Heck I didn't even know there was a WINX Club section on this site.

Another contribution from my Backburner.

As usual I own nothing. BTVS is Whedon and the WINX Club is owned by Iginio Straffi and 4kidstv or Nickelodeon have US rights.

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><p>Buffy Summers sighed as she and her group trudged into the Halloween shop. Snyder, troll that he was, had chosen the one night that she could have off and veg without having to worry about the fate of the world as the Vampire Slayer that was protecting the Hellmouth and turned it into a night of indentured service as she had to play tour guide for a bunch of mini monsters that she wasn't allowed to slay. The one night that the supernatural decided to stay in, was the one night that Snyder had managed to wrangle her into doing this.<p>

Her day was all the worse because of the special guests that Giles was hosting today. It seemed that Xander's whole saving her thing had caused the Slayer line to do something hinky, since there were now two slayers. Kendra and her Watcher were in town on the trail of something or other. Unfortunately, Buffy and Kendra were about as different as the night and day. And not in the racist kind of way. Kendra being a Council raised Slayer was all yes sir, no sir, and sacred duty this, and as the Chosen One. It was really kind of annoying. Not to mention scary, as she could easily see something like that having happened to her had she been Council Raised, as she was beginning to think of it as. The girl was so robotic like that it was a bit unnerving. The fact that she and Giles spoke the same geeky language was offsetting as well. No one their age should be like that. It was a crime against nature for a girl like her to enjoy stuffy librarian jokes. Buffy on the other hand was just a bit more free spirited and opinionated. At least that was the story she was going with.

And then there was Faith, a potential Slayer that like her had slipped through the cracks of the Council net and brainwashing. She was a girl that had lived a less than stellar life. She tried to give off the air of a rebel and wild child, but Buffy used the dumb blonde mask enough to recognize a mask when she saw one. She was the girl from the bad side of town, as her dad used to say when warning her away from certain people. Faith had only been found by the Watchers Council a few months ago, so she was still normal by all standards. She had her own slew of problems, but was normal as far as Buffy could tell. She and her Watcher Diana Dormer had come in because the woman had access to several rather rare boring old tomes that Kendra and her Watcher Sam Zabuto needed to look at.

Buffy had thought that she could at the very least spend her time hanging out with her friends, but Snyder had axed that idea as well and had assigned girl and boy escort teams. Willow and herself had been teamed up Cordy and Amy and somehow Kendra and Faith had been foisted on them as well and would be joining them on escort duty. She was sure that she smelled the manipulation a of tweed and tea in that strange move. Not that she could prove it but it was a little to convenient. Xander on the other hand had been placed in a group with Larry and some of the other various boys from the school. She actually felt bad for her friend, and realized that this Halloween really hadn't been his thing. Something kept happening to make his day worse than before.

Faith seemed about as pleased as she was about their escort duty. She had also been less than pleased when she had found out that she had to go along and watch how the real Slayers did things. She had heard the girl muttering about the unfairness of it all, and how she didn't need a babysitter, and how they were seriously cramping her style and messing with her party time. Kendra on the other hand was all about the duty of guarding those that could not defend themselves, and actually tried to ask Buffy what type of security arrangements they should set up and what weapons that they would be allowed to carry. It was Halloween though, the night that the supernatural was supposed to take off nothing, bad was supposed to happen tonight. All three Watchers had agreed with that.

Snyder had decided to give Cordelia creative control of their costumes for whatever reason or excuse that he could come up with. For all any of them knew it could have simply been that she had decided to pay him off, or he was doing it to add to the annoyance factor. Considering how much the man despised them and seemed to go out of his way to make The a Scoobies lives as miserable as he could. Either one of them was a real and certain thing when one dealt with him. It didn't help that Queen C was openly insulting all of them and their dress styles except for Kendra though. It made remembering why she wasn't allowed to slay the girl rather difficult. She had also been forced to stop Faith from taking a swing at the girl as well. Something Buffy was really starting to regret right about now as they all stood in the Halloween shop and listened to the popular girl.

"Right, now since we have to have matching costumes and none of you obviously have access to the required fashion sense I'll be making the decisions here." Cordelia explained to the group, as if they didn't all know that Snyder had given her the power. "Besides, none of you really know how to dress yourselves considering what you're all wearing." She added with a sniff, as she looked the other girls over with a critical eye as she judged their clothes. "Now wait here while I go and acquire the things that we'll need."

Buffy scowled at the back of the girl angrily.

"Remind me again why you said I couldn't pop her one?" Faith asked the blonde. "I mean it's not like I got the Slayer package yet, so if I were to hit her I couldn't chance killing her." She reasoned to the blonde suggestively.

"No it would be wrong." Buffy returned somewhat reluctantly, though all could see that the Senior Slayer was greatly tempted by what the potential was saying to her.

"She's right, it be our duty tah protect er." Kendra reminded the other girls pointedly.

"She doesn't watch it, she's going to need protection from me." Faith grumbled back to her companions.

"Alright enough talking." Cordelia ordered, as she walked back over to them with several clothing bags. "I have your costumes picked out, now get up there and pay."

"Um, don't we at least get to know what we're getting into?" Amy asked nervously, considering that she was somewhat intimidated by the other girl it was amazing that she had managed that much.

"What, and trust your fashion sense?" Cordelia snorted in disbelief, as she cocked her eyebrow at the girl. "Considering I happen to know more about fashion than you ever will, how about you follow your orders. Willow may know about the computer things, and the crazies may know about the weirdo things, and you may know about cooking, but I know about clothes. So do as you're told." She ordered, giving the girl a glare that caused her to flinch back in fear.

Amy nodded her head in acceptance of the command, not wanting to get on the popular girl's bad side.

'It's no wonder there's always something that wants to kill her." Buffy noted to the others idly. With an attitude like that it's no wonder Marcie wanted to slice Cordy and her clique up into little pieces."You are so lucky that I'm trying to stay on Snyder's good side some what." Buffy growled at the cheerleader in annoyance. She hated seeing the way that Cordelia so casually shattered the minor showing of spine before it could even develop. "Because if not, I would be tossing you into a dumpster right about now." She informed the social diva in front of her.

"Yes, yes, you would make me regret it all." Cordy shot back at her in a bored tone knowing that there was no conviction behind the blonde's threats. She had learned early on that while Buffy might kill the undead, she made a habit of never using her powers against humans. This meant that all Buffy could do was threaten her, glare, and occasionally come up with some waspish comment or joke of her own. She even hesitated in using her more fearsome manner of speaking when it came to them. Having been on the receiving end of a Bitchy Summers put down, she knew that the girl had skills if she ever chose to use them. Cordelia was just lucky it had only been Xander and Willow listening in that day. She was truly harmless when it came to the threats of the social world though because of her refusal to use her full skill set though. Which was good, as there was only enough room in Sunnydale High for one Queen, and that was her.

The group paid for the costumes and them arrived at the Chase Mansion where each of them was given a clothing bag and sent into a different room to dress. Cordy turned and looked at the group as they exited the rooms.

The Queen of Sunnydale High was dressed in a sparkling pink dress with matching boots and pink flower necklace. On her back were a pair of glittering pink wings that sparkled every time that the light hit them.

Cordelia nodded as she examined each of them. "A much more interesting look." She complimented Kendra, as she examined the sparkling green shirt and skort combo that she was wearing with a pair of heavy heeled boots and wings.

"Huh, you don't look too bad either trailer trash." Cordelia noted with a sneer, as she examined Faith. "There's obviously room for improvement, but a change of clothes can only do so much." She commented loftily.

The brunette raised her hand as if eager to start a fight. She was dressed in a pinkish red outfit. It had bright boots that came up to her knees a sparkling skirt and a shirt that bared one of her arms, and wings. In defiance of Cordelia's acceptable look she had added a pair of headphones that were currently resting around her neck.

"Try anything else, and I'll ram that necklace of yours down your throat princess." Faith growled back angrily. She was already missing her familiar leathers, and skinny jeans, and this costume was nowhere near as revealing as she thought a Halloween costume should be. Maybe she could find some scissors later and open it up to display her goods appropriately. She might even try to convince the others to do so as well. They were all way to uptight in her opinion.

Cordelia's eyes moved on down to her other minions for the night. Amy was dressed in a sparkly orange outfit with her hair done up in two ponytails. The shirt was bare on one shoulder and she had a pair of bracelets that looked like they could have come from a Wonder Woman costume. She finished it off with well placed wings.

Willow was dressed in a sparkly purple bodysuit that covered all of her skin except for her head which had a giant cone like helmet. She also some weird green metal wing like ornaments. The genius like girl was obviously uncomfortable as the outfit displayed every one of the curves that she owned and normally kept hidden beneath the folds of her normal clothing. It was the perfect thing for Willow since she was pretty self-conscious of her looks.

"This is what happens when you let someone who isn't your mom have some input into what you wear." Cordelia explained with a smirk, as she looked at the girl that was actually pretty nice looking now. "Well that and not bothering with the Sears collection." She added in. And to think this is what I managed it without any of the better places. She continued arrogantly.

Finally there was Buffy, there was a lot of things that the girl could say about the Slayer, but the girl did know how to clean up when she wanted to. Cordelia thought grudgingly, as she looked to inspect what the blonde was wearing. Dressed in a sparkling blue two piece outfit with matching boots and a red wig that matched Willow's hair gave the girl a look that was to die for. The wig was being held in place by a golden crown. She looked almost as cute as she did. Not that she in any way felt threatened. Still if she was going to swoop in and steal Angel from the Slayer, she would have preferred that the girl had stuck with the hobo look she had been using last night. "There's that girl I met on your first day here." Cordelia noted, though frowning internally when Buffy matched her glare for glare. It seemed that the blonde was actually spoiling for a fight. She supposed that she would have to give her a few minutes to get herself under control. It wouldn't do to have her deciding to try and overthrow her or something like.

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><p>As the girls walked through the doors of the school all activity stopped as everyone turned to see the group of sparkling clad teen girls that were dressed as fairies.<p>

Xander Harris grinned as he realized that those were his friends for the most part that were walking down the hallway. He wasn't always sure what it was that Cordelia was. Seemed to be a case by case thing. Heck, the loss of his masculinity earlier today was almost worth getting to see this display of sexiness. The group of guys that Xander had been teamed up with seemed to agree as they were all openly staring at the girls. His group had all gone for medieval knights, each of them with their own weapon. Xander's was a spear, while the others were carrying a variety of other weapons. The young man looked at what types he had been placed with, It seemed that Snyder really didn't care who he snagged in his recruitment drive. An equal opportunist was not something he had expected from the man. Gage Petronzi of the swim team, Oz and Devon from the local teen band, Hogan Martin from the basketball team, and him, Xander Harris, King of the Cretins and Scooby Gang Member Founder.

"Wait a minute, those are the girls that Harris is hanging out with all the time?" One of the jocks asked in disbelief, as he looked the girls over in awe.

"Yes, that they are, those are my girls." Xander confirmed with a smirk, as he basked in the reminder that they were his friends not the others. Sure they sometimes made life difficult for him, but there were also times that they made life good as well. "Now I think that it's time for this knight to schmooze up some time with his fairies." He explained with a smirk, as he strutted over to his friends. "Ladies, it's great to be seeing all of you. Well most of you." He noted, as he gave Cordelia an indifferent nod even as he leered at the revealing outfit that she was wearing.

Buffy smirked at Willow, as she realized that if nothing else happened tonight, at least Xander would be made abundantly clear that the redhead was not only a girl, but that she was in the hot girl category. Once that was done she could then turn her attention back to Angel, and working on keeping Cordelia from trying to horn in where she wasn't wanted.

"And just what are you all supposed to be?" Snyder demanded, as he rounded the corner to see the group. "Are any of you actually old enough to be wearing outfits like those?" He sneered out at them. The way he said it and looked at them in disgust made it obvious what he thought of the outfits and where they belonged.

"Well that's simple, we're fairies with style." Cordelia explained, with a condensing smirk at the man, as if she thought that he was either sludge beneath her shoes or an idiot. Considering that she was looking at Snyder it could very easily be both. She then waved her hands towards the wings that each of the girls was sporting on their backs that the man had somehow missed. "There's nothing in the rules that's against that now is there?" She questioned the man with a sweet and mocking voice. Snyder was fuming in anger, but he remained silent. "I thought not." She noted in victory, as she strode past the man looking for someone else to unleash his annoyance on.

The principle glowered at the girl as he tried to try and figure some sort of comeback to fire back at her. The fact that the Queen of Sunnydale had already turned her back on him and dismissed him didn't help. The man instead turned towards one of his favorite victims for his vitriol. "Try not to do anything indecent Summers, you are representing the school." Snyder snarled before storming off angrily.

"I honestly can't say whether or not I'm happy that he lost that round." Buffy admitted to the others, as she watched Snyder stomp off. Deciding on whether she wanted Cordelia or Snyder to win was not something that she had been expecting to have to deal with. It was a no win sensation as far as she was concerned. Because whenever one lost, they turned around and attacked her for whatever reason.

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><p>Xander was showing to be in his element, as he found himself surrounded by lots of small costumed figures that were all in need of his particular bit of advice. When it came to Halloween, there were few people that knew how to work the system as much as he did. He and Jesse had taken it beyond a simple night of freebies, they had turned it into something that transcended what most people would understand. They had become true masters of the art that was Trick-or-Treating. He had been Trick-or-Treating this town for years, and now it was time to pass the knowledge that he had had painstakingly gathered over the years to the next generation of candy grubbing costumed ones. The only mar on this holy of holy days, was the fact that Snyder was the one controlling this gathering. It had always been a time of excitement and fun when Principal Flutie was in charge of it. That simply meant he had to work twice as hard that his charges had a good time. No reason for Snyder to drag all of the fun out of the night.<p>

"Gather around young warriors of the night, and I shalt tell thee the advice that be created by the ones who did come before thee on this path of adventure." Xander told his group of urchins. "Now then, about the sleazing on extra candy: Tears be the key. Tears will normally get thee the double-bagger. Thou canst also try the old 'you missed me' routine, but tis risky. Only go there for chocolate. Understood?" The kids all nodded their understanding of his advice . "Good, then let us head out unto the breach" Xander ordered, ushering the children to follow after him. He very carefully didn't mention the map that he and Jesse had made to show where all the good stops were. He didn't want the jocks to be made aware of it, and it was two halloweens out of date. Had he known that he was going to be back out here he would have checked the map before going out.

The teen was completely oblivious that he had impressed more girls with that display than any number of tricks or gimmicks he had pulled over the last couple of years to make an impression on the various girls. He had gone from only a minor blip to a medium sized blip for many of the girls watching. Even Buffy and Cordelia felt the warm tugging sensation that he had created. Even if the two would deny the emotions that he had stirred in them.

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><p><strong>Ethan's <strong>

In the small shop where half of the town had bought their costumes, a roman bust with a face carved into either side sat upon an altar. Around the altar traced on the floor were various magical writings and symbols. Ethan Rayne sat down in front of the statue and bowed before the statue before he began chanting."Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!" The chaos mage finished his chanting,mbowed his head again as he felt Janus answer his call as the energy from the spell activated and spread throughout the town.

"Showtime," Ethan declared with a smirk of anticipation, as he looked back up at the statue. "This should be interesting, not to mention fun." He noted gleefully, as he considered just what kind of reaction old Ripper would have to this. In the old days he would have been impressed with his spell work. The Watcher that had taken his place wasn't as likely to see the amazing things he had done with this spell. Such a shame since he had partially based it off some of the possession spells that they had experimented with earlier in their lives. If he could reach his old friend though, maybe it would be okay.

Bloom groaned as she tried to figure out where she was. The last thing that she could remember off the top of her head was that she and the others had been fighting the trio of witches known as Trix. Since her introduction into the world of magic the redheaded fairy had gotten far more used to getting into fights than she was sure her parents would like. Not that she told them about all of the fights that she got into. Besides, in the world of magic, she had finally found the place that she truly belonged and friends that accepted her for who and what she was. At home she had never quiet fit in, but with her new life she was finding that she had everything she could want.

As she looked around though, it looked more like she was back on Earth, only there were all sorts of monsters that were surrounding her. She didn't know just what it was that was going on, but she was determined to stop the monsters that were roaming all over the place. Besides, she had to help while she could. Normal people had very few defenses against magical attacks, and it was up to her to see to it that everyone got to safety. She was nearly run over by a car as it squealed past her.

Bloom felt inside of herself and activated her Winx. Winx was a form of magical energy and magical concept for fairies. Basically, it is a fairy's magical power that à fairy draws their Winx from. In short it was their magical source of power. There was a lot more to it that that, but that was Winx at its most basic form. Once she felt her Winx, she fluttered her wings and took to the air to get a better view of what it was that she was dealing with. She saw that whatever it was that was causing all of this trouble seemed to be all over town. There were strange looking trolls, goblins, ogres, and creatures and beings that looked like they had come from another time roaming through the streets of this unknown town. She quickly used her fire magic to create barriers that held some of the various creatures back from attacking anyone or anything, as she tried to get some sort of an idea as to just what exactly was going on. She needed to figure out how she got here, where all of these beings came from, what they were doing on Earth, and how to send them back.

As she reached a hight where she could see everything, she was surprised at what she saw. There were savage and dark creatures all over attacking people. She could see the flare of winx power and saw the familiar tell sign of her fellow W.I.N.X and friends as they battled it out with the various creatures. She closed her eyes and she could sense the W.I.N.X energies that her friends commanded. Stella was sending various celestial attacks, Musa was bombarding the enhanced senses of the various creatures with large sounds, Flora had vines that were tying the things down, Layla was sending water at her adversaries, while Techna was using her digital barrier to protect children in costume from being assaulted from the various creatures. She also saw what looked like a group of Specialists that were using enchanted weapons to hold off some of the more dangerous looking creatures.

She began looking around to see where it was that she was the most needed. While a part of her wanted to head towards her friends, she also wanted to make sure that everyone was alright as well. She really wished Mrs. Fairognda was around somewhere so that she could advise her one what to do. The headmistress of the fairy school in Alfrea would know what to do.

First things first, they needed to regroup then they could figure out what to do. She headed towards Techna. The girl was the smartest member of their group, and if there was going to be a way of stopping these things then she would stop these curses from overtaking everyone and then they could figure out what it was that they could do next. Her friend might even have an idea as to how it was that they had gotten dragged to Earth.

Spike snarled as he held a sign post that he was using as a makeshift staff as he tried to deal with the Slayer's minion of all people. He wasn't sure how he was doing it, but somehow Droopy the Boy Blunder was possessed and using some sort of magic weapon that was making him an actual threat. Hell, he was almost a match for the slayer when he was like this. There were also other folks wandering around with weapons that were fighting the rest of his minions, and keeping them all pinned down here with nothing that they could do. This meant that he couldn't cheat by having his minions swarm the boy so that could tire him out and kill him. It was beginning to look like if he wanted to get through this one, he was going to have to beat scrappy on his own. He began trying to figure out what all was different about the boy. The weapons themselves were some sort of science fiction like things, that might have some magic in them as well. He had training in how to fight, and seemed to have a rough idea as what the various creatures he had been forced to fight were. On the plus side, he didn't seem to have any of the knowledge that he had picked up over the years while being lackey to the Slayer. He also didn't have the strength or speed to compete with most supernatural creatures like vampires. Considering his spear was slicing through everyone and everything though that didn't seem to matter as much though.

Specialist trainee Squire Brandon, to Prince Skye of the planet Eraklyon scowled as he looked at the strange creature that he was facing off with. This strange being was stronger and faster than anything human sized that he could recall ever having to face off with before. He still wasn't sure how they had gotten here one minute he and the other Specialists had been gearing up for a mission and the next they were in a strange world and had almost immediately been attacked by various strange creatures. Some of them looked like some of the breeds of goblins that they had studied, there were of course other creatures out there as well. It really made him wish that he had studied more in creature identification class. It would have let him know just what it was that were dealing with.

He wondered if he should chance letting the others know how much trouble that he was having with this creature. Every move that he made it seemed like this being had a counter for it, or he simply got out of the way before he had to worry about it. It was actually rather frustrating for him. He also seemed to be making the creature in front of him rather angry as well. As if it knew him, but didn't know him. Something that he didn't understand, since he knew for a fact that he didn't know the guy. Of course, he was still trying to figure out just where here was. He needed a plan on how to find out where he was and then to somehow regroup with the others. First he had to deal with this thing though. It had elongated fangs, glowing yellow eyes, was extremely pale skinned, and it was dressed in leather. It kind of reminded him of some of the stories of a dark creature that Bloom had told them about. At the time they had all thought that they had sounded funny. Now that he might be facing one of the earth story creatures it wasn't nearly so laughable though. What had she called the, Vandeer or something like that.

"What's the matter boy, not as easy to be the one with the power as you thought it'd be?" Spike taunted the young man. "Did you not ever think about what all the Slayer has to do to be the bloody hero that's always having to rescue you from the craziness that's the Hellmouth whelp? Not all the fun and games you'd thought it would be? Guess your nowhere near ready to take the Slayers place as you thought you were." He taunted the specialist. "It takes more than you'll ever be to be the hero here boy."

Brandon didn't know why, but he was feeling a lot of guilt and fear over those comments, and wondered why he would feel like that. It was as if there was a part of him that knew there was some truth to whatever it was that the creature was telling him. He refocused his attention on the dangerous creature though, determined to either destroy it or run it off. Whatever self doubts that he might be feeling, he had bigger issues to deal with than whatever this thing was. Tightening his grip on the spear it released a powerful blast from the end of it.

The blonde's eyes widened in surprise as he saw a blast of energy coming at him. He raised his weapon up to block it. The blast tore through the metal pole though, and then continued on through his body, and erupted from the other side. The vampire screamed in shock and pain at the damage he had taken as he fell to his knees as he tried ignore the flash of pain that was in his chest. He didn't think that he had ever been hurt this badly before.

Brandon smirked at the downed figure. "That's why you don't ever mess with a Specialist." He explained grimly. He then turned away from the figure to go and locate the others that were out there. He had to, since his gut was telling him to end the creature despite the fact that he had no right. He could practically feel himself raging at him for being noble and letting something as dangerous as that live.

"Another time boy." Spike gasped out, as he glowered at the figure that was walking away. It was going to take time to heal a wound like this. Still he would get his revenge on the boy for doing this to him. The fact that it would probably hurt the Slayer was just pudding. He would show him why he was known as William the Bloody and the Slayer of Slayers the next time that they met. He would regret leaving him alive.

Bloom buzzed through the air and let out a sigh of relief as she saw some of her friends. It seemed that they had all gathered together unconsciously. Techna and Layla were working defense in taking turns with creating walls made of mystical constructs and pulling people out from the street in giant water bubbles or green wire mesh until they were safe behind the defenses that they we're holding. While that was going on, Flora and Musa were working in sync by creating either sonic attacks that were knocking the various creatures sense of balance off or by having the various vines and roots to shoot up and garb them. Judging by the reactions that many of the creatures were having, Bloom guessed that a number of them had heightened senses and were actually hurting even more than the fairies thought that they were.

"Bloom." The witches all exclaimed in relief, as they saw their friend fly towards them.

"Hey guys." She returned to them. She conjured a fireball in her hand and tossed it a particularly nasty looking creature that looked like a furry mess of claws and teeth. "Any idea as to how we got on Earth?" She asked them, as she tossed the various fire spells around causing the creatures to scatter away from her as none of them wanted to get hit by the fireballs.

"We're on Earth?" Musa asked in surprise, as she tossed two of her sound bombs towards another group before sending a blast of pure sound to knock her a next group away.

"Yeah, and its Halloween." Bloom returned to her friend.

"Wait, I thought that it was Halloween a few months ago though?" The confused fairy returned to her friend.

"It was." A frowning Bloom returned to her. "I think that there is more going on here than any of us know though."

"Your right," Flora agreed, "there is so much dark magic in the air it's actually kind of painful." The brunette girl admitted. Of the entire group, Flora was the most in tune with the feeling that magic gave off. It made her the best to sense when things were off in some way or other.

"So we got crazy monsters and unknown dark magic?" A scowling Layla asked the other girls as she sent a jet of water out to knock several monsters back. "Is there anyway to make this worse?" She demanded of the others.

"Yeah, so I'm thinking that we should all try and be prepared for anything." Bloom returned to them.

The others nodded their heads in understanding with the warning that their friend had given them. They were interrupted as a creature somehow managed to barrel through the various shields by using the bodies of others to block the magical energy that the fairies were using.

"Starlight Slash." A voice shouted as a blonde in a sparkly orange outfit suddenly dropped from up above and knocked the creature back. "Hey girls." The blonde greeted cheerfully as if they weren't in the middle of a battle.

"Stella!" The others greeted in relief.

"I guess that means that we're all here then." Techna noted with relief on the fact that their entire group would be facing whatever it was that this was. They had learned that they were stronger together.

"So girls what's going on?" Stella asked her friends curiously as she swung her staff sending a shower of stars at another creature. "Where are we even?"

"We're on Earth, we don't know how, but we seem to be in some town celebrating Halloween again, and there is dark magic all over the place." Musa quickly informed the blonde. "Now we just need to decide what we're going to do."

"If we can find the source of the dark magic then theoretically we should be able to disable whatever it is that's causing all of these problems." Techna chimed in. "From what I've been able to figure from my scans, it appears that we're dealing with some strange form of possession magic. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen something this powerful as far as possession magic goes." She admitted.

The girls all looked uncomfortable at the idea that their friend wasn't sure just how powerful something would have to be. Techna was the best when it came to calculating the amount of magic that someone would need to perform a spell. If she couldn't figure out what it would take from one of her scans. it meant that there was more to it than any of them thought was possible.

"In fact I'm not even sure we're really us either, we appear to be covered in the possession magic as well." The girl continued.

"So how are we here?" Stella asked even as she began feeling her body over.

"We must be in the bodies of other people through that possession magic." Layla suggested.

"And if that's true, how many of these creatures are probably just regular humans as well?" Bloom fretted, as she looked at the creatures that they had been fighting.

"But how? Earth doesn't have any magic users." Stella asked.

"Not that we knew of." Bloom reminded her friend. "Maybe their are still some on Earth after all."

"I'm guessing a witch from everything I'm seeing around here." Musa growled out. "No fairy would do this." The others nodded their heads in agreement with their friend.

"Flora, Techna can the two of you trace where the dark magic is coming from or whats holding us here?" Layla demanded.

"I've already been working on that actually." Techna replied, as the pink haired fairy held up a strange device for her friends to see. "With this scanner I've been able to figure out that the problem that we are facing is actually twofold. The dark magic is coming from that direction, the possession magic on the other hand is coming from the other direction. She continued nodding to her map.

"We'll have to split up then." Layla told the others with a shrug. "Flora will look into whatever this dark feeling is while Techna will take us towards the source of this possession magic that their using." She reasoned to the group.

"Sounds like a plan." Bloom agreed. "Techna take Layla and Stella, Flora, Musa and I will check out this dark magic sensation." She declared.

The others nodded their heads in agreement. "Right." They all chorused to the redhead. They then split into their groups with each of them flying in a different direction.

When they came to a stop Flora, Musa and Bloom found themselves in front of a high school. "I am so glad Stella is not here, she would have so many comments about schools being evil or something like that." Musa noted dryly, as they looked at the building that Flora had managed to lead them to.

The girls all smirked in agreement at that. "So where we go from here?" Bloom questioned Flora as they made their way into the building.

"The power is all over the place, its like something really evil is trying to claw its way into me." Flora complained rubbing her arms, as if to ward off the dark sensations that were blasting away at them.

"Just take your time and focus." Musa comforted her friend. "No one has senses like you." She reminded her. The two fairies were interupted as Bloom and Musa were forced to blast some monsters that had been creeping up on them.

Flora nodded her acceptance of the idea. Closing her eyes she focused on where the dark feeling was the strongest. "Right, ah this way." She declared, pointing in one direction. The trio buzzed overhead and dodged around various creatures as they headed towards the sensation. They finally stopped before a pair of double doors. "Whatever is causing the feelings of darkness is beyond these doors." She told them.

"In the Library?" A mystified Bloom returned in surprise at this newest revelation. "What could be so evil that it would be in the library?"

"You mean besides all of the books?" Musa joked. "No sense in waiting out here though." The fairy decided as she kicked the double doors open and strode inside.

As they moved in they noticed three older people looking up at their noisy entrance. One of the men was even reaching for an ax that was lying on the counter.

"Buffy what's going on?" The man with a weapon asked as he turned to look at Bloom.

"Buffy?" The redhead questioned, while pointing at herself curiously.

"Yes, you Buffy." The man returned to her tiredly. "What the devil are you lot doing back so early?" He demanded of them. "I thought that you were going to head to the Bronze after you were done with escort duty unless something has happened that is? And just where are Kendra, Xander and Willow?" He questioned, while looking towards the door as if expecting someone else to come through.

"I don't know what's going on here, but we need some answers". Bloom told them. "My name is Bloom, and this is Musa and Flora."

"Actually your names are Buffy, Faith, and Cordelia." The man returned to them. "It sounds as if you three were either bewitched or had some other type of magic placed upon you." The man mumbled, as he looked the three girls over.

"Mr. Giles they are obviously spelled someway, trying to force their identities on them is not going to help." The woman scolded him, she then turned and smiled at the group her eyes lingering on Musa for a moment. "My name is Diane Dormer, this Rupert Giles, and Samuel Zabuto." She informed them, as she pointed towards the men. "I know this must be somewhat scary and confusing, but I want you to try and remember everything that happened to you since you arrived." She requested of them.

The girls nodded and gave a quick recap of what they had already faced since they had come to wherever it was that they now were.

"Pardon me, but you said that you used magic?" Sam questioned them with interest.

"Well yeah, we are fairies." Bloom replied to him. She didn't notice Zabuto's scowl at her casual response.

"Fairies?" Diana asked curiously. "As in nature type fairies, or the ones that owe allegiance to Oberon?"

"Ah nature fairies." Flora explained.

.Who or whats an Oberon?" Musa hissed at Bloom.

.He was the last known king of the Earth fairies before they died out." Bloom returned to her friend. "He was on our last history of magic test." She pointed out to her.

The adults ignored the byplay between the girls as it gave them more information that they could use. "Bloom could you give us a display of your abilities?" Diana questioned.

"Sure." Bloom replied, as she held her hand out and a small creation made of flame sparked to life.

"Impressive." Diana admitted. "Now why did you come here?"

"Flora sensed a dark magical presence, and thought that it would be a good idea to come here to make sure that it wasn't a threat or the cause to how we got here." Musa explained with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I see." Samuel returned to her. "You are either very brave or very foolish to come charging into an unknown situation where high levels of dark magic are." He lectured the trio. "What if you had been attacked or injured by something that was here?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Musa returned cockily. "Now that you know our story whats yours?"

"So different and yet so alike." A smirking Diane Dormer noted as she eyed the fairy of sound over.

"Musa be nice." Flora scolded her friend. "Its obvious that they are merely worried about us." She then turned to look at the adults. "So what's going on?" She asked as respectfully of the group as she could.

"Fascinating." Giles muttered. "The host abilities and personality don't appear to have any dominance at all."

"You want to tell us what's going on now?" Bloom demanded in exasperation.

"The darkness that you are sensing is not responsible for this situation that you find yourselves in and is therefore none of your concern." Zabuto countered the group. "Suffice it to say, that there is a dark portal here that we and our agents are responsible for protecting and ensuring that those that would like to open such things do not. I don't believe that you need to know what it is. However, due to your circumstances I believe that we can offer you some aid in figuring out just what it is that has caused this."

"Good, lets go, we still have to search the rest of the town." Bloom decided. "We can start with what we believe is the source of the possession magic."

The Watchers nodded as Rupert grabbed a rapier while Diana picked a crossbow up. "It should be interesting to see how different things are from theory to fieldwork." Zabuto noted, as he grabbed a heavy silver cross for protection. "I have trained Kendra to be amongst the highest standards, it will an intriguing case study to see how a normal person fares against whatever creations the spell has formed against. As a test it shouldn't be nearly as dangerous as the threats that she deals with. Particularly on this night.."

Giles rolled his eyes at the man in annoyance as he stretched himself out in preparation for the coming fight. In any other place this might not have so bad, but this was the Hellmouth where things tended to go wrong in a very drastic way. Acting like this was a simple fact finding mission or research opportunity was likely to have the man killed if he wasn't careful. "Come, we should go." He suggested, nodding towards the doors and leading the way outside. He noticed that despite Zabuto's words to the girls, the Watcher was hanging in the back. Obviously the man was one of the more proper Watchers. A type that he strived to be, but had constantly been told he lacked certain qualities to be. He was actually wondering if maybe being the proper Watcher was really what he wanted in life though.

Brandon the Prince of Eraklyon looked at the rest of the group. He had somehow found the other Specialists, and they had quickly begun moving through the streets either destroying or capturing the various creatures that were roaming around the town. Sky, Timmy, Riven, Brandon,and Helia had all been working their way through the various streets. They were pretty sure that they were the only ones dealing with the threats that seemed to be cropping up all over the place. To make matters worse, none of their communication technology appeared to be working either, so they couldn't send a signal out for backup. Not that they weren't used to being in bad situations like these, but there was always a chance that something could go wrong and they could be on the wrong end of things if they weren't careful. It didn't help that none of them even knew how it was that they got here. As far as they had been able to figure, they were in some sort of Earth realm town. All the time that they had spent around Bloom made it so that they could figure that out. They were lucky that most of the creatures appeared to be mindless beings that could be herded to some safe place. Although there were also several that were more dangerous for some reason, and the longer that they were out here, the more of them that seemed to show up. What's more the creatures acted like they were natives to this area, and they also acted like they didn't know of the laws that prohibited the settlement of dark creatures on Earth. Which was weird, since the laws had been in place for ages. He looked over at his friends, and saw that they were all doing alright in their assignments. A clawed creature of some sort nearly took his head off, but Timmy managed to send a energy blast at it knocking it away. He looked over to see Brandon and Riven tearing through a pack of the strange creatures. At this rate they might be able to hold the line as long as nothing worse came along and decided to turn the danger level up.

As if summoned by his thoughts a gray rocky looking creature around 7 feet strode around the corner. "Hey guys I think the noise has caused some of the bigger fish to come out." Sky warned the others as he took in the figure.

Everyone turned to look at the giant creature, to make it worse it seemed that it had friends or at the very least little brothers and none of them looked like they were very happy to have been woken up from their sleep. In fact they looked rather annoyed.

"I sure hope that this doesn't get much worse." Timmy mumbled out, as he pushed his glasses up and began firing his blaster at the creatures. The beams hurt the smaller ones forcing them back and chipping their hides. Against the big one though the beams ricochet off of him. It raised its arms and they all watched as long claws sprouted from its seven fingered hands. "Alright this could be a problem." Sky noted. He and Riven disengaged from their fights and attacked the new group of creatures. Sky was wielding his blue energy broadsword while Riven was wielding his pink scimitar. Each of the boys threw their energy boomerangs watching as they bounced off the creatures before returning to their hands.

"Their armor is to thick, we'll need another way for us to dispose of them."

"Well tell me when you figure that one out." Riven growled, as he began launching a series of lighting fast strikes against the creatures.

Angel, the vampire better known to the world as Angelus scowled as he watched the demons battle with the group of boys. He didn't know what exactly was going on, he had been on his way to Buffy's to surprise her. With tonight supposed to be the supernaturals one night to stay in, he had thought that he could spend some of his time with her. Considering that he had been forced to listen to Cordelia Chase go on and on all last night for hours only for the Slayer to stop by only briefly for a couple of minutes he figured she owed him. He knew that she was upset about something, and hoped that whatever her problem was that she had managed to get over it. He really wasn't interested in listening to another girl's problems. Instead of getting to do any of that though, he had found himself being chased by various monsters and creatures. Some of them had looked similar to some of the caricatures of demons and goblins, while others had been strange creatures that he had never even heard of. Most of the beasts were fierce and feral beings though. He had seen more than one of them try and rip someone or thing up for merely being in its way.

Angel saw that Harris and some others had been affected in similar ways as many of the others, if not to the extreme that most of the people were. How Xander ended up with something useful like a magical knight he didn't know, but he figured that he should probably lend him a hand. On the other hand he should find Buffy and make sure that she was safe. Xander was at least capable of protecting himself for the moment. Buffy might not be so lucky. Besides if he knew the Slayer as well as he thought that he did. Then it was likely that even without meaning to she had somehow ended up in the middle of this entire mess somehow. Which meant that if he found her, then it was likely that there would be a way to end it. Normally the vampire would have just tracked the Slayer down by her scent. The problem with that plan was that she had somehow managed to make it as if her scent was all over. So unless she was traveling on the rooftops or something similar, he wasn't sure how it was that he was smelling her all over the place. He needed to find her though and let her know that he was here for her. Who knows, maybe if he was lucky she would let him play the hero this time around.

The WINX were flying overhead when they saw the flashes of light below them. "Down there." Layla shouted out to the group, pointing to where they could see the group of Specialists that they had formed a bond of friendship and love with were currently fighting against some unknown creatures. The smaller creatures really weren't much of a worry, but the large one in the middle that was somehow ignoring all of the attacks was.

"Do we stop and help them?" Techna asked curiously, wincing a bit as she saw Timmy get tossed to the side by an angry creature.

"Like you even have to ask." Stella returned, as she fired a pinwheel of magical energy at the creatures. "I have to save my snookums." She declared, as she zipped towards the Specialists.

"Lets go.. Layla returned, as the pair of them followed after their friend. The trio of fairies bombarded the monsters with a variety of attacks. None of them did a lot of damage, but were enough of a distraction that the Specialists were able to erect barriers around the creatures and contain them.

"Stella." Brandon greeted with relief as he grabbed the girl in a hug.

"Where are the others?" Sky asked curiously, as he knew where one found part of this group the other half was sure to be nearby. He was curious as to where Bloom might be.

"They're checking on something that feels wrong to Flora. The rest of us are tracking the source from this possession spell." Layla explained to the young man.

"A possession spell?" Riven asked skeptically crossing his arms as he looked the fairies over dubiously. "You expect us to believe that this is all because of some sort of spell that someone cast?"

"It fits," Techna returned in defense of her theory. "It would also explain why no one else has been able to communicate with us unless you're saying that you've managed to get in contact with anyone in any of the fairy realms?" She challenged the large teen.

Riven scowled at the girl, but shut his mouth as he knew any argument that he gave would be torn to pieces by the girl.

"So what do we do?" Helia questioned the girls.

"We're not sure, we were going to investigate the source of the spell when we stopped to assist you." Stella explained from the comfort of her boyfriend's arms. "Not that you guys needed our help, but we thought it was better if we moved as a group and all."

"Understandable." Sky agreed, thankful that the girls had at least tried to protect their pride and egos from having to be saved from the fairies.

"So what now? Do we go help Bloom and the others, or continue on? Because things are pretty dangerous out there and there are safety in numbers." He reminded the girls. "Considering some of the things we've seen out here it might be better to work as a group."

They were interrupted as the rock demon leader somehow managed to break free of its containment and free its friends. The group went on the offensive the fairies acting as the ranged units while the Specialists moved in close with their weapons and formed a ring around the creature as they took turns attacking and falling back.

This was the scene that Bloom led the Watchers into. She saw that her friends were busy fighting it out with the dark creatures.

"Lapis Demons." Zabuto noted with distaste as he looked at the creatures. "I didn't know that there were any on the Hellmouth."

"I was unaware of this as well." Giles confessed as he watched the creatures. He also noted that the weapons that they had brought with them would be next to useless against the creatures. They had a thick hide made of rocklike substance, and it required a lot of strength or magic to injure them seriously. That or you just drove your car into them and hoped that was enough to stop them.

"Kendra, use attack pattern 3." Zabuto ordered on seeing his Slayer. The man glared as he noticed that the dark skinned girl wasn't even listening to his commands. "Kendra, I gave you an order." He shouted louder. "Attack pattern 3. Respond."

"Attack pattern 3?" Giles asked in surprise. If he recalled correctly, attack pattern 3 was an attack designed to insure that the Watcher survived while the Slayer used a series of blitzes that usually ended with the slayer severely wounded or dead while the Watcher ran for their life.

"Mr. Giles, you better give your Slayer the order as well, we need to get out of here and report the danger that is here." Zabuto informed the younger Watcher. "As soon as I can get my Slayer to respond to commands that is. She seems to be having troubles understanding her orders."

"You forget that shes been possessed, and likely can't hear you." Giles reminded the man. He decided he didn't need to inform the man that he and Buffy had never discussed such battle tactics between them.

They were interrupted as a group of vampires came from behind them and made hissing and snarling sounds. "Just bloody great." Diana grumbled as she saw the creatures behind them. "We don't need them to add into this." She noted, as she began pointing her crossbow towards the group.

"I must agree, I also think that the Council should be made aware that you and Slayer Summers have so little control over the Hellmouth that even Halloween is dangerous. Zabuto noted disapprovingly. "Perhaps its time that a more effective and traditional Watcher was found for Miss Summers before she corrupts any other members of our organization."

Giles rolled his eyes at the threat. While no one could argue that Zabuto was an effective trainer, having raised Kendra in the ways that the Council had declared fit for Potentials. It seemed that he was also one of the bureaucrats that littered the organization as well. How someone like him expected to keep their Slayer alive he would never understand. It did explain why the last time Kendra had been here Zabuto hadn't been with her though. It also explained the robotic way that the girl acted. Even he realized that a young girl shouldn't be so interested in some of the things that he as a Watcher was. The influence of the others was doing a lot to loosen her up from the mindless robot though. Not that Zabuto seemed to think that was a good thing.

"Now is not the time for such business, we have more important matters at hand." Diana reminded the older Watcher. "Make a note of your complaints, and you can address them with Travers over your next phone call."

Zabuto nodded his head stiffly, as he turned back to the situation at hand. They did need to deal with the vampires that had them boxed in. Once he was able to though he would need to contact Quentin and explain his concern over the spare Slayer and her Watcher though. The pair of them were displaying rogue like tendencies. Several people had thought it had been a bad idea to send a supposed reformed demon summoner of Rupert 'Ripper' Giles reputation to the Hellmouth. Then again no one had really expected for the girl to last as long as she had either. "Back creatures of the night?" He demanded of the vampires. "By the power of the Watchers Council I command you to disperse before I order my Slayer to dust you back into oblivion. This is the only warning that you shall receive creatures."

The vampires chuckled in amusement at the oldest Watcher. "Listen old boy, your not fooling anyone with that act of yours." The apparent leader explained. "You really expect us to believe that the Slayer can even be bothered with you and your Council orders right now?" He taunted the trio of Watchers. He waved his arms to encompass the town that was seemingly falling apart around them. "I doubt that you Watchers would even be out here if it wasn't for the fact that the Slayer and her people are all out of it." He noted with a smirk. "That means that for tonight at the very least you folks are all ours."

"You forget that we are the ones entrusted in the training and care of the Slayer." Zabuto countered. "Do you really think that we are as helpless as you would like to believe that we are?"

"I do wish that you would shut up." Giles noted tiredly as he listened to the man antagonize the vampire. He really hadn't thought that there was someone foolish enough to do such a thing when they knew exactly what it was that they were. The idea behind meeting such a revered Watcher was quickly becoming somewhat disastrous. At this rate he might actually enjoy getting attacked just so he didn't have to listen to the man.

Its true that you are the trainers of the Slayer. The vampire conceded. In the end she's the one out here while you read your books from the safety of your halls. This means that you know all of e things that the Slayers are taught and should prove to be nice sources of information. After I'm done with you I can then start hunting the Slayer and take Spike's title as the Slayer of Slayers away." The vampire growled as it rushed forward.

Diane Dormer fired the crossbow at the incoming vampire, but it merely batted the bolt away to the side. It was nearly on the Watcher when it was struck from the side and sent flying to the side.

"You don't want to try that." Angel advised the other vampire, as he stood protectively in front of the Watchers.

"Angelus." Zabuto noted with a disgusted look. "What are you doing here vampire?" He demanded haughtily as he looked down his nose at their rescuer.

"Saving your lives." The vampire returned almost casually, as he looked at the vamps. "Last chance to get away." He offered the group.

"Destroy him." The lead vampire ordered as it forced its way up. The other vampires nodded and rushed towards Angel. Angel almost casually met the vampires that were a far cry from the skilled fighters that he was. Ducking under the blows of one, he twisted the arm and used him as a shield from the blows of another. Pushing the two together, he threw a stake into the chest of a third. As that one crumpled to dust he glared at the other two who decided to scurry away before they to were dusted.

"That's enough Angelus." The leader shouted from where he was holding Zabuto by his jacket. The cross lay on the ground and the other two Watchers were knocked to the side. "You try anything else and I finish this one Angelus." The vampire warned the dark protector.

Angel hesitated as he tried to think of just what he should do next. The others were all to busy fighting the strange rock demons, leaving the rescue of the Watchers up to him. He needed something to help him break this standoff though. Otherwise they would be here till morning. Not something either vampire wanted. He noticed that the minions had crept to he side of their master making this even more difficult. "Why don't you try taking me on?" He suggested to the younger vampire. "They're regular humans, no matter how much they like to drone on and on about how important they are to the battle between light and dark. They're hardly worth the effort of claiming you beat them though, even if they are Watchers." He tried to reason with the other vampire. "Besides, some Slayers get very upset when you take what they think of as theirs." He told the vampire knowingly. "I've seen what happens when that particular Watchers slayer's favorite shirt got destroyed. If you were to kill her Watcher though, there's no telling how upset she'd be with you."

"Well let's find out then." The vampire declared as it tightened its grip on the older Watcher. Angel was stuck between some of its minions so could only look on as the Watcher struggled for the fallen cross in a pitiful defense and had his throat slit by razor sharp fingernails.

Angel glared as he saw the results of the other vampire's work. With an almost casual fling he staked the two minions leaving just the two of them. "While the Slayer's not in her right mind, I guess its up to me to make sure that you pay for your crime."

The vampire opened his mouth to respond, but a geyser of water erupted out of nowhere. The stream of magic water swallowed the vampire. Angel turned to see Kendra/Layla with a furious look on her face as she commanded the water. While the Slayer may not be in complete control, it seemed that she was in enough control to make her displeasure known. The young fairies eyes glowed white with power as she channeled more and more magical energy into herself. Angel stared in disbelief as pipes and fire hydrants all up and down the street exploded shooting water into the skies. It was one of the first time that he had ever disliked the extensive sewer system that Sunnydale possessed. The girl made some sort of gesture and the vampires watched as what looked like a giant tidal wave was forming and rushing at them. The vampires were lucky that they didn't require to breath like most beings as it tore through them. A moment later the two undead rose out of the water and were spitting it all out.

Angel noted somewhat crossly that he and the vampire were the only ones that had been hit by the wave. None of the Fairies, Watchers, or Knights appeared to have been touched by the water.

"I'll show you what happens to your kind." Layla swore, as she performed some sort of spell and the water lit up and blasted both vampires. The pair separated and Angel fell down into the sewers while the other vampire found itself stuck before the angry fairy.

"Looks like she really cared for him despite his being something of a tosser." Giles observed, as the vampire was thrown into a wall. Suddenly several blades of what're sliced through the vampire and it dusted. With her target gone the girl fell to the ground in a boneless mess.

"Come on we need to finish this." Bloom declared, doing her best to ignore what her friend had just done to the monster. Once they were all safe she would then make sure that her friend was all right. "Techna, where do we go?" She asked, spurring her friend into action.

"Um right, ah that way." The pink haired fairy replied, as she pointed where they had to go. The others nodded and set off in that direction.

The Watchers cast worried glances as they observed the group. There was no telling what the repercussions that this spell might have. It had already passed the realm of safe magic. The fact that these girls were all channeling so much magic through their bodies was going to have some sort of consequence. Giles followed behind them as Willow or rather Techna led them to a store advertising all sorts of Halloween costumes. When they got to the store Giles stared at the name on the sign. "I might have known." He muttered to himself. "Everything about this mess practically screams his name."

"I take it you have some idea as to what is going on then Mr. Giles?" Diana Dormer asked him curiously.

Giles nodded his head in agreement. "Indeed my dear lady. If my suspicions are correct, it would appear that some of my misspent youth is trying to catch up with me." He explained to the woman. "This is going to be a most unpleasant experience for me I fear. If I could keep the children out of it I would."

"Unfortunately, I cannot see anyway for that to happen." Diana returned to him. "The sooner we fix this problem the better. We have already lost one member of our group. I don't wish to split our forces any more than they already are."

"Agreed." Giles replied. "Into the breach then?" He asked the group, as he took the lead. The group followed Giles into the store. They looked around the place with interest. It seemed to be a rather simple store. There was a variety of mannequins draped in a different costumes, several inflatable skeletons and racks and racks of costumes. In the center if the room was a collection of runic writings, in the middle of that was column which a bust rested on.

"What's that?" Riven asked, pointing his scimitar at the statue.

"According to my sensors the chaos magic is coming from it." Techna informed the others, as she examined some strange devices.

"Janus. Roman mythical god." Giles identified the statue for the group.

"What does it stand for? Musa asked curiously.

"For this spell, it stands primarily for the division of self. Male and female, light and dark." Giles told her knowingly.

A thin man appeared out of the shadows. "Chunky and creamy. Oh, no, sorry, that's peanut

butter." The man mocked.

"I don't suppose I could convince the rest of you to leave?" Giles asked the others even as his eyes refused to turn away from the man.

"Not with a dark magic user like this guy around sir." Brandon returned to him, as he held his sword at the ready.

"Yes I thought as much." Giles returned, unsurprised by the response from Xander/Brandon before he turned his attention back to the man. "Hello, Ethan." He greeted coldly.

Ethan smirked back at the Watcher. "Hello, Ripper." He greeted back to Giles.

"You know this guy?" A surprised Flora questioned the man in surprise.

"Indeed." Giles told Cordy/Flora with a curt nod. "Long ago we were what you would call friends."

"Closer to best mates as I recall Ripper, but who's keeping track right?" Ethan questioned him cockily, not looking the least bit worried about all of the people that were in his store.

"You've had your fun mage." Diana noted with a scowl. "Now you need to end this madness that you have wrought before something happens. We would likely be forced to turn your own magics against you. Besides, if we were to force you, there are a lot more of us than there is of you." She reminded him with a smile.

Ethan chuckled a bit at the woman as he eyed the group over without any fear. "It is a bit crowded in here." He admitted to the Watcher. "Why don't you lot let the adults talk." He snapped s fingers and several of the mannequins wavered for a moment before coming to life. Each of the mannequins already had a costume and soon they looked like the creatures that they had been dressed as.

"I take it you planned this?" Giles noted darkly as he took in the figures.

"What can I say Ripper, I wanted some alone time with you." Ethan returned to the librarian. "Get the unwanted guests out of my shop." He ordered the costumed mannequins.

"What kind of customer service is this?" Stella/Amy demanded as she dodged a fireball from one dressed as Godzilla. "I mean hello, what are you hoping to accomplish? I think you should talk to someone in marketing about this. You'll never get any repeat business this way." She informed the mage.

"I do have the right to refuse service to anyone I want." Ethan told her calmly, as the dummies drove Diana and the teens out of the store leaving just himself and Giles inside. "I'm sure that they'll be much to busy now to worry about what some old timers like us are doing." He noted to his old partner in crime with a dark smirk.

"You truly are insane." Giles declared to his former friend. "Do you have any idea at all as to what it is that you're doing?" He questioned as he looked at the man. "Or did our sessions of experimentation destroy whatever bits of common sense that you had left?"

"Come now Rupert, you can drop the act now that they're all gone." Ethan returned to him. "You don't have to act like the stuffy uptight Watcher anymore."

"It's not an act, its who I am now." Giles told his former friend. "No number of crazy spells is going to get me to suddenly start acting like a rebellious schoolboy just because you want to relive the good old days."

"Nothing wrong with remembering who and what you really are." Ethan returned to him.

"I am who and what I am though." Giles returned to him.

Ethan scoffed at this. "Who you are?" He exclaimed in disbelief at what the man before him was saying. "The Watcher, sniveling, tweed-clad guardian of the Slayer and her kin? I think not. I know who you are, Rupert, and I know what you're capable of. But they don't, do they? They have no idea where you come from."

Giles sighed, it seemed like Ethan was prepared for a long and meaningless debate on who and what he truly was. He had probably even rehearsed this speech just so that he could try and make his point to Giles. How Ripper was his true personality or something like that. Personally Giles thought that he sounded more like one of Xander's stupid comic book villains than anything else. All this elaborate setup just to try and get some delusional point across to him. Not that Giles would ever to admit to having read any of those things when he had much more interesting things to read.

Outside the group of Fairies and Specialists were finding themselves to be in a battle unlike anything that they had expected. They were fighting what seemed to be generic Halloween monsters in the form of a Frankenstien's monster, six skeletons, three ninjas, a Reaper, and a Godzilla monster. The specialists were holding the ninja and skeletons back while the WINX girls were doing their best to hold the other monsters back with their magic. At the moment neither group of heroes was doing to good though. Whenever the specialist struck at the ninja they seemed to disappear in a smoke cloud while the skeletons fell apart only for them to bring their bodies back together the moment the specialists turned their back and looked for a new opponent. As for the monsters they had been designed to be hard to destroy. They had been designed with the concept of holding empowered people back. Ethan had obviously been prepared for this possibility.

The Godzilla monster breathed a mouthful of flame at the group. "Looks like we're going to have to practice some of our dragon wrangling." Sky noted, as he managed to move out of the way of the creature's thrashing tail.

"Great." Riven growled, as he used his sword to bat away some of the ninja weapons. "What about these guys?"

"I shall deal with them." Helia returned, as he launched his magic wires which wrapped around the limbs of two of the skeletons. He then twisted on his heel sending the creatures flying. "It will take them time to repair themselves if they are scattered over a large area." He explained to the, calmly before turning to find more opponents.

"Come on." Riven growled, as they turned to look at the dragon like creature.

The girls were trying to deal with the Reaper, but the creature was dangerous as it could turn intangible and its scythe was just as dangerous as any of the Specialist weapons. That didn't even include the blasts of energy that it was capable of flinging out at the girls. What's more, it seemed to be able to counter all of the spells that the girls sent out at it. Musa sent out a sonic boom bomb and it sliced through the attack with the blade. Techna tried to bind it in the digital web only for it to blast it apart. Layla sent a stream of water for the entire attack to go right through it. Flora sent trees and vines to wrapped around it only for the plants to wither on contact. Bloom and Stella sent blasts of pure magic, and the creature countered by sending a blast of magic of its own which shattered the attack.

"What is this thing made out of?" Musa questioned in disbelief. "We keep on shooting at it, and it just keeps on coming."

"She's right none of our attacks are having any affect." Flora noted discouragedly, as she cast another spell and several plants rose out of the ground and began shooting explosive seeds at the Reaper. The seeds were caught up in its hand and crushed.

"You are going about it wrong." Diana Dormer explained, as she walked up to the group of young magic users.

"How so?" Stella asked curiously.

"You are trying to win this fight, when all you must do is to delay it. The best way to handle these things is merely to hold them off. Besides, it was designed to be a counter for possessed people using borrowed powers like yourselves. You must not get discouraged and have faith that Mr. Giles can deal with the mage inside. We are merely keeping these soldiers busy." She explained to them.

None of the girls looked happy, but nodded their heads in agreement. They would have to change their tactics. They did notice that the boys were holding their own against the dragon and warriors.

"Fine lay on the magic, and keep it away from the shop." Bloom ordered her friends.

"Lets do it girls." Stella exclaimed excitedly. The fairies all rose in the air and began pouring more and more magic onto the powerful magical creature.

Diana frowned as she noticed that the Reaper was managing to hold the magical energy back. It wasn't forcing its way through, but it wasn't being pushed back either. It was at a stalemate between the girls and the strange creature. Whichever one lost its hold first would be the loser in this contest. Considering that the girls were already battle worn, she didn't have much hope in their chance of survival for a long drawn out battle. She turned to look at the Knights or Specialists as they called themselves, and saw that they to were scrambling all over the place trying to keep the various magical creations at bay. The dragon like creature was tied up, but the knights weren't able to press the advantage of capturing the creature as they were all busy in duels with the other fighters. If Rupert didn't figure out how to deal with the situation soon, then it was likely that they were all dead. They were just lucky that the lumbering Frakenstien creature was more like the one from popular cinema and not from the book as it was much each easier for them to dodge around when it did start getting close. Still if it did get its hands on them it could be painful.

"Tell me how to end the spell." Giles ordered as he knelt down beside Ethan.

"And I thought you said Ripper was gone." Ethan croaked back through a bloody mouth.

"Shall I continue then?" Giles asked as he grabbed the man by his knee and started to squeeze.

"Alright break the bloody statue." Ethan gave in. "You used to enjoy these sorts of things." He wheezed out.

Giles ignored the man as he picked the bust up and prepared to throw it on the ground at that moment the front window shattered and the girls all came tumbling in. The Watcher looked them over and saw that they all appeared to be exhausted from their fight. He looked up to see the Reaper then blast at the girls. It was only the timely intervention of Xander and the other Specialists who appeared out of nowhere and blocked the blast of magical energy. The blast had the unfortunate affect of tossing the young men farther into the store. If any of them ever had overdue fines they were forgiven. "I do hope that you were telling the truth about how to end this Ethan, because I do believe that your creations next attack will kill us if you lied." He noted.

"I'm telling the truth Rupert." Ethan shouted as he looked at his Reaper being joined by Frakenstien, and Godzilla fearfully. "Destroy the bloody bust and all of it is over." He assured him.

"Good." Giles returned as he threw the bust at the Reaper.

The Reaper fired a blast of energy and there was a buildup of energy for a moment before the statue shattered. Everyone shielded their eyes as they saw the energy explode.

When everything was over everyone turned to look each other over. "Buffy?" Giles questioned, while looking his Slayer over.

"Yeah Giles it's me." The Slayer returned, as she pulled the wig off of her hair, letting her blonde hair tumble free. "That was definitely different even for the Hellmouth." She noted to her Watcher.

"How about yourself Faith?" Diana asked from her spot beside the broken window.

"I'm good Lady D." Faith returned to her Watcher. "You gotta admit that was kind of cool though." She told the woman while flashing a careless smirk. Diana merely shook her head at the potential.

"Mistah Zabuto." Kendra yelled, as she leaped through the window and sped down the street. The others didn't even hesitate as they took off after the other Slayer. They found the girl kneeling at the side of her fallen Watcher. "He be gone." Kendra noted tonelessly.

"Its alright." Buffy tried to comfort the other girl. Memories of when Merrick had fallen flashing through her mind.

"I failed in me duty." Kendra noted.

"It wasn't your fault." Buffy argued. "It was Halloween, the one night off that we're supposed to get. He told us to go out there." She reminded the other girl. "You did nothing wrong."

"But he be dead because I did not do my duty." Kendra argued.

Buffy didn't say anything as she held the other girl for a moment and patted her on the back.

Giles watched with pride as his Slayer comforted her sister Slayer. He would do everything in his power to make sure that the girl was taken care of. His gaze turned to look at the others. Xander was holding a glowing green broadsword, there was a young man holding a purple glowing scimitar, another boy with a blue sword, a boy checking some strange gun like device, and the final boy was checking things out. They all appeared all right. At least these were, he wondered what it was like in the rest of the town.

"So what's the story?" Buffy asked as she looked towards Giles with interest.

It was a couple weeks after the whole Halloween incident as they had taken to calling it. Things had changed for the group in ways that none of them could have ever expected. Giles for the moment had been named the current Guardian of Kendra, and had enrolled her in school at Sunnydale, Faith and Miss Dormer were currently moving to Sunnydale, and that was just some of the more obvious things that had happened. The teens that had all dressed as Specialists had found themselves coming by the library more and more often. They had wanted to train to get their skills up or to keep them at what they had been. Then they had wanted to go on patrol with the Slayers. It was while this was happening that several things had become apparent to the group. Many of the powers and abilities that their characters had were now in possession of the group there was also the fact that the group dynamic had changed as well. Buffy, Cordelia, and Amy were now the leaders of their little clique while the other groups that the teens had been a part of had been dropped.

Xander and Amy had also formed a relationship, Buffy and Larry had opted to pass on that though she and Gage had been spending a lot of time together, Oz was currently seeing Faith, and Willow had fallen in with being friends with hanging around Devon. Kendra was still adjusting to society to worry about relationships, and Cordelia had gone through several emotional and social changes.

"I mean all the girls now have fairy magic, while the guys are all trained as magical heroes, or if you want to get all technical like Specialists. I can't imagine that the Watchers Council doesn't have something to say about that. I mean look at what we can do now. The blonde Slayer informed her Watcher as she formed a ball of fire in her hand before snuffing it out.

"Yes this is a rather unique situation that we find ourselves in." Giles nodded in agreement. "While I can't be sure that it will help, I'm going to suggest that all of you girls study various branches of Wiccan and nature magic. Hopefully the combined styles will work for your own new found skills. Jenny has even agreed to teach Willow what she knows about her techno pagan methods in a hope that they are compatible. At least until she can find a suitable teacher to instruct her."

"And what does the council think of all this?" Cordelia asked curiously, she knew very well that those in power did not appreciate change. Harmony was a prime example of that. The girl that had once ruled as her number two was finding life very difficult now that Cordelia had chosen new friends to hang out with. In fact, the girl was quickly finding herself being regulated back to being a minion as one of the other girls was taking control from the ditzy blonde.

"While not overly ecstatic about the changes in Buffy and Kendra, they are willing to live with it for the moment since you will all continue working on keeping the earth safe."

"And the Specialists?" Xander asked, as he examined his weapons. "Are we a part of this deal or what?"

"They're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now, and see how you do things." Giles stiffly returned to the young man. "Between the two Watchers here, we should be able to continue your training. You must be sure to be thankful though." He warned the young man. "The Council does not permit just anyone to join their ranks, even it is a position of a soldier and warrior."

"On the plus side, at least Cordelia's gotten an attitude transplant." Buffy noted with a grin as she thought to the former methods that the brunette had used when it came to her social skills. The young woman that used to shred someone with just a few choice words had been replaced with someone that gave freshman Willow a run for her money on sweet, innocent, and naïve at times. The irony of it was amazing. If she wasn't having to act as a buffer for her now to keep her away from the words of others it might have been fun to watch.

"Yes, we must enjoy small miracles as they come." Giles said in agreement, glad that vitriol no longer spilled from the young lady's mouth all the time. It made her a much more pleasant conversationalist in his opinion. Which was fortunate, considering that plant magic was one of the more powerful types of magic out there, and fining teachers willing to deal with her as her attitude was before would have been most trying. Very few magic users that he would have wanted teaching her would have been willing to deal with a student with so much anger in their system. The fact that said girl was in part responsible for the creation of Marcie Ross showed just how dangerous the vile she spewed could be.

He looked down at the list of the different styles of magic that each of them now possessed. Buffy now had Dragon Fire-Magic, the only types of fire magic that were more powerful and destructive were Demonic Fire and Holy Fire magic. Against vampires, such a power would be extremely useful. If she could harness the power that is.

Willow now had some form of Techno-Magic, he was unsure just how powerful that might be, but if she possessed even half of the potential that someone like Moloch had then she was powerful. He had at first dismissed the style as Jenny had never shown any of the abilities that most of the more powerful mages were, until he learned that Jenny was actually a fairly weak user. Jenny had explained what a powerful user might be able to do, and he had begun to understand the need to train her in this new form of magic.

Kendra the Vampire Slayer now had Water-Magic, a magic based on one of the four elements making her a potential to be one of the mages of the elements. On Earth there were many mystics that practiced in various forms of magic. On all the planet, one of the most powerful were the four elemental guardians, people who had based their entire magical abilities on control of one element.

Faith the Potential, now had Sound-Magic. Sound-magic was a sub group of air magic, it was still one of the more powerful styles of magic as a person wielding this style could do many things with just the barest of sounds. It was a great offensive style, and from what he understood of the girl, it seemed as if it was one of the best matches for her. Anything with enhanced sense was likely to now be at the mercy of the girl.

Amy Madison, a person that dabbled with some of her mother's old magic items and was learning that she had an unsurprising gift for magic. Considering how powerful a witch her mother had been, it wasn't completely unsurprising that her daughter had great potential as a spell caster. He should have kept a better eye on the girl, as she could easily have fallen prey to the darker path that magic offered her. A path that he himself was all to familiar with. It was a hard and dangerous path. He only hoped that he managed to get to her before it was to late for her to find her way back. Seeing Ethan again had brought with it a number of memories he would just as soon forget. In his defense though, he was trying to fight a war with very little in the way of resources. Following through with the results of some of their adventures had fallen down through the wayside. It was also supposed to be the responsibility of other Watchers to ensure that things like this didn't happen. Obviously someone had not thought a girl with her potential should be watched. He had written a very critiquing letter to the Council over letting something like that slip though the cracks. Once Diana Dormer had learned that the girl studying magic was not his fault had sent their her letters. The girl now had Moon and Star Magic at her disposal. Giving her an odd type of celestial magic. The staff that she now owned also seemed to amplify her powers to levels that were nearly on the level with Buffy's powers.

The Specialists training was actually much easier and could be done by the Watchers. Combat skills and demonology were the best. They each had a most interesting style from which they could build from. The teachers of these warriors should be commended for the skill in which they had taught their fighters.

* * *

><p><strong>Wondering if I should turn in my man card after this one.<strong>


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